Saturday, August 11, 2007

I'm pissed as well. I want the Democrats to stand up and do their job. And I'm going to be the first to stand up and replace anyone who voted for this FISA bullshit. Thankfully, the representatives from Washington understood just how important this was and how pissed off their base was. Not one rep from Washington voted for this, at least on the Democrats side. Doc Hastings, McMorris Rogers, Reichert, your days are numbered. You have no idea what kind of crap you have bought into.

If we can't find common ground in the values that keep our country together, the war between the Democrats and Republicans, which is really about big money stealing from the people, will devolve into a second Civil War, one that I've been seeing on the horizon for a number of years now.

You're right, the government does not rule over the people. In our system of governance, the people are supposed to BE the government. But that takes an educated population and enough free time after work to devote to studying and debating the issues. Right now, as you demonstrate with your repeated statements of having to work instead of respond in an open political debate, at least one of those, time, is lacking in our society at the moment.

The way I see it, the economic spectrum runs from Communism, which is government ownership of the means of production and distribution, over to unregulated capitalism (Objectivism) where all of the means of production and distribution are privately owned. Communism is a failure. It never had a chance. It's been recorded over the last 7,000 years of history that unregulated capitalism becomes a cancer that eventually destroys the means of production and distribution entirely. The Sumerian empire collapsed because they clear-cut their forests. The Roman empire collapsed. The Holy Roman empire collapsed. The British empire collapsed beginning in 1776 when a bunch of radical intellectuals decided that they wanted to control their own destiny. We've been fighting against it ever since, and I'm afraid we're about to lose. We fought against the East India Company, and dumped their Tea Tax into Boston Harbor in order to protect our local industries. We fought against Fascism in Europe, and rebuilt the Continental nations with roads, public education and universal health care, something that the health care corporations in this country have been fighting against since Truman tried to bring it to the United States in 1948 after FDR proposed it in his second New Deal speech to Congress. Fascism originated in Italy as the merger between state interests and corporate interests. I don't want to be represented in Congress by Microsoft or Boeing, nor do I want the government to own the means of producing software or airplanes. The United States was designed to be on the balance point between private ownership and government oversight. Whenever I hear someone raising their voice against "Socialism", I wonder if they really know what the word means. If someone wants to protect me from socialism, it means that they want to take away my voice and vote.

I'm happy to share my values. I'm proud to have them. I believe that every child deserves an opportunity to reach their potential. I believe that humans are part of the biosphere, not separate from it. I believe the United States is a great country. I believe I should have both voice and vote in the decisions that affect my life.

I believe that nature is to be respected and celebrated, which I think you agree with because of your years in the Parks department. I believe that we live in a social setting where we have to care about our neighbors. I believe that taxes should be used to invest in our infrastructure, infrastructure that we all use in order to live comfortably.

I believe that people should be able to pursue their dreams, without being caught in a rat race against time trying to get a high enough bank balance each month to keep a roof over their heads, trying to grow their savings to send their children to college, and then do it all over again for another 20 years so they can live in dignity towards the end of their life.

I strongly believe in the Bill of Rights. I keep a copy of the Constitution in my backpack so I can refer to it when I need to. Every activist should have a copy with them.

I believe that we should honor our sacrifices. I think everyone who has ever served in the Armed Forces should have free health care forever. I believe that we should be fair to everyone, because if anyone feels the yoke of discrimination it's only a matter of time before that yoke descends onto us. And I believe that the government should be responsible for building a solid physical, financial and social foundation so we can all reach for the stars and our potential as individuals and as a community.

I don't see things politically in terms of left or right. I see them in terms of right and wrong.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

This FISA vote does not mean that we should abandon the Democratic Party. This does not mean that we should quit the fight, give in to Fascism or voluntarily give up on our Constitution.

Our representatives in Congress who have the D's next to their names are not "The Democratic Party". That's the way the media is spinning "leadership" in our political world, but it's false. WE are the Democratic Party. The members of the grassroots of America who go to meetings, who organize for issue based campaigns and in support of candidates, who talk to our neighbors and cast the votes, these are the people who have the right to claim that WE are the party.

Howard Dean said it in 2003. We have the power. But it's more than that. We ARE the power. We have the power to replace anyone who doesn't vote in support of the Constitution or our values. We have the power to put people into office who will do their jobs.

Anyone who says that this is the time to abandon the party is doing exactly what the Conservatives want us to do. I'm not quitting because of this one vote. Because we can reverse it. We can force another law to be passed that reverses everything that Bush has done over the last 7 years. We just have to get organized and do it.

They can take my Constitution when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

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About Me

Chad Lupkes is a progressive political activist in Seattle, Washington. After fighting cancer in 2003 and realizing that 47+ Million people in the United States didn't have access to health care he determined that that will change.